PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 365 



Firth of Clyde, Boreray in the St. Kilda group, Stack (or East Sulisgeir), forty miles 

 west of Stromness, and Sulisgeir (or North Barray), thirty-five miles north of the Butt 

 of Lewis, are the only known breeding-places ; while in Ireland there are colonies on 

 the Bull Rock (Co. Cork) and the Little Skellig, the latter being occupied by some 

 fifteen or twenty thousand birds. Outside the British Isles there is a breeding-station 

 on Mygances in the Faeroes, and several off the coast of Iceland (the Westmanneyjar, 

 Grimsey, and off Reykanes), but none on the Continent, though there are stations in 

 North America on the Magdalen Isles, the Gulf of St. Lawrence, etc. During the 

 winter months it is found in the Atlantic south to Marocco, the Azores, Madeira, 

 and Canaries, and possibly also Senegambia on the east side, while on the west it 

 ranges south to the Gulf of Mexico, but rarely visits the Baltic and Mediterranean. 

 [F. o. B. J.] 



3. Migration. Found all the year round in British waters, though less 

 widely distributed in summer (see preceding paragraph) : some birds, however, 

 leave our area in winter and wander as far south as the Canaries, but, on the other 

 hand, birds from the Icelandic and Faeroe stations doubtless visit British seas at that 

 season. The winter movements of this species are probably not migrations in the 

 ordinary sense, and are apparently directly connected with the food-supply, viz. the 

 herring. The gannet is a regular winter visitor to the English Channel, arriving 

 from the North Sea in October and November, and it is an occasional visitor to 

 North Wales during the herring season (cf. Ticehurst, B. of Kent, 1909, p. 302 ; and 

 Forrest, Fauna of N. Wales, 1907, p. 253). In Ireland the gannet has two breeding- 

 stations in the extreme south-west, and on the north coast birds from the Scottish 

 stations may be seen fishing in summer : birds seen off other parts of the coasts at 

 that season are probably non-breeding individuals. In winter it is less commonly 

 observed on the Irish coasts, but regular seasonal movements are to be noticed both 

 in spring and in autumn. Of these the spring movements are the most marked : 

 they sometimes begin as early as January, are in full swing in February, March, and 

 April, and often last to some extent into May and June. " During these months the 

 gannets pass northward, often continuously for a month or two together, both up 

 the coasts of Leinster and of West Connaught," probably to the west of Scotland 

 stations, or farther on. " From Carnsore Point, however, to the Fastnet we find the 

 general direction of the gannet' s flight during spring is south-westwards towards 

 their Irish breeding-haunts, though it is evident that many do not stop there, but 

 continue to move on northwards past Slyne Head and the Black Rock, as before 

 stated. The return movement is observed in autumn, though not so regularly " (cf. 

 VOL. IV. 3 A 



